Saudi Arabia: Key oil pipeline is back in operation

Saudi Arabia, as reported by Reuters, may resume oil exports from the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea on Tuesday. The agency cited three sources familiar with the matter. Two of them added, however, that the volume of transported oil is currently small.

State-owned Saudi Aramco, which operates the pipeline, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Why is the East-West pipeline so important?

Oil transport via the East-West pipeline, which connects oil fields in eastern Saudi Arabia with the Red Sea port of Yanbu, was suspended on September 13 due to damage from a drone attack. According to the Saudi Arabian authorities, damage occurred in approximately 1.2 thousand km of the pipeline was carried out by Iraqi militias allied with Iran.

Before the attack, from 2.6 to even 4-5 million barrels of raw material were transported per day via the East-West pipeline, which constituted from 4 to 5 percent. world supply of crude oil. It is an alternative to Saudi Arabia in the face of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.